The Guitar Player's Resource
OK, not exactly metal, but it made a better headline than "Pedal To The Hard Rock". The CD-R release from Speed Limit 35 is entitled Shifting Gears, and what you'll hear from New Jersey based guitarist Steve Rabeler and Florida based keyboardist Mitch Gorman is guitar-oriented instrumental rock recorded in separate home studios, put together via instant messenger, FTP and e-mail! Rabeler and Gorman have taken elements of progressive rock, heavy metal, surf, rockabilly, and heck, even surfabilly to build a musical gumbo that will get you changing lanes faster than a caffeine-charged, Saab-driving, gear-grinding, perpetually-late, mega commuter. There isn't much like this on the music scene at the moment - the success or failure of Speed Limit 35's marketing will ultimately determine if such a mix was a good idea or not - but with so many 'me-too' cookie cutter albums that reek of sameness out there, their fresh approach sounds like it just might take.
Speed Limit 35 was formed during the summer of 1997 in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Mitch and Steve met while working as software developers for a computer sciences company, and discovered they both owned and loved Saab automobiles. Discussions of cars turned to discussions of guitars. Steve bought a 4-track mini-disc recorder - Mitch picked up a new acoustic guitar and a synthesizer, and they began jamming, writing, and recording songs. After three years of work, SL35's first CD "The Speed Of Sound" was released in August of 2000. This CD featured the contributions of singer/lyricist Judilynn Niedercorn and guitarist John Walker. It received very positive reviews, and more than 90,000 downloads on the MP3.com website.
Since October 2003, the band's song "HTML" has been featured in California Polytechnic University's new online virtual view book. In April 2004, Shifting Gears, the band's second CD, was released on Hectic Eclectic Records.
Steve Rabeler
United States
Web site: www.speedlimit35.com